Ingredients:
185g of Ssamjang (fermented bean and chilli sauce – usually comes in a green container – we bought ours from the local Asian groceries)
125ml of Water
100g of Sugar (we used Raw Sugar)
2 Tbsp of Usukuchi (Japanese light soy sauce – we bought ours from the local Japanese grocer)
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Sherry Vinegar

Procedure: Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove saucepan from heat and let cool (for about 5 minutes). Add ssamjang, usukuchi, sesame oil and sherry vinegar and stir until ssamjang dissolves in the mixture. Taste mixture and adjust if required (there should be a nice balance of sweetness, heat and saltiness). Reserve 125ml of sauce for the rice cakes and keep the rest in the refrigerator.

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Procedure of Roasted Rice Cakes:

Heat 1 Tbsp of Grapeseed oil in a cast-iron frying pan (on medium-high heat) for 1 minute and add onions into the pan. Leave for 1 1/2 minutes undisturbed. Use a spatula to toss the onions and season with salt while doing this. Cook for 10 minutes (turning the onions every few minutes). After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to low and cook the onions for a further 20 minutes (turning the onions every 5-1o minutes) to avoid burning and drying-out. Leave them aside to cool.

If your rice cake sticks are frozen, take them out to reach room temperature before cooking or they might split in the very hot oil.

In a medium-sized saucepan, heat mirin and ramen broth over high heat for a few minutes until slightly reduced. Add the Korean Red Dragon Sauce prepared earlier into the saucepan and reduce the heat to medium for 5 to 6 minutes until a nice glaze develops. When that happens, add in your onions and stir to mix thoroughly with sauce. Cover saucepan and keep warm (careful not to burn the sauce).

Take a cast-iron frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add 2 Tbsp of Grapeseed oil into the pan. When the oil is just about to smoke, add the rice cakes sticks and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the rice cakes for about 2 minutes each side until light golden brown but careful not to dry them out. Remove rice cakes from pan. If you are using long rice cake sticks, cut them into 5cm sticks.

I LOVE rice cakes! We normally have it Chinese style but the Korean ones are lovely too. I might try making this for my mum sometime this week, we’re home alone because the boys are going to Italy without us 🙁 I’ll make them jealous with this instead 😉

i use a similar red dragon sauce for marinating some chicken drumsticks and baste it on the pan till its sticky and charred. although my recipe was a bit of an adventure of “what should i put on my chicken today”..